EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing)

EMDR is a structured therapy in which you briefly bring a distressing memory to mind while your eyes follow the therapist’s hand from side to side. Its full name is eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing; some therapists use taps or sounds instead, and you talk through what comes up. It was developed by Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s. There is good evidence that EMDR helps adults with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and UK guidelines (NICE) recommend it for them; other uses are not well studied: see “EMDR: what the research says”.